Making the Grade (Aug.): CM Punk, Pete Alonso, Batman, Shohei Ohtani, Babe Ruth, Kris Bryant, Jim Morrison & more

Like many collectors, Buzz is a fan of grading and knows that there are many reasons that collectors choose to slab cards. Sometimes it's to enhance the appeal and protect them when selling. Other times it's to protect an investment for the long-term or to protect for sentimental reasons. Or, it might be just for fun or curiosity about a potential grade.

Here's this month's grading diary here on The Buzz ...

GOOD TIMING FOR MY FIRST 3D CARD
The Card: Pete Alonso 2019 Topps 3D #475 -- Rookie Card
The Reason Bought:  No, I didn't buy this one in the wake of his Home Run Derby dominance -- I grabbed this one in the off-season since the price was right (around $30) for a good rookie from that one. Since the Derby, this one has sold for a lot more raw and then some in higher grades but it's still relatively modest compared to other big rookies in the last few years. I didn't grab this one to flip -- I just grabbed it as a good example card to have from one of these plastic-stock releases. It's my first and I do like the 3D effect that is applied here. In this case, his front arm feels closer compared to everything else.
The Grade: PSA 9

Reality Check: The pop report is more of the odd modern type with plenty of 10s but there's also nothing below my grade -- so it's a sign that these cards must grade pretty well if you rip packs and find somebody good.

Keep reading for more of this month's pick-ups and new slabs for Buzz.

A HISTORIC PAIRING
The Card: Babe Ruth & Shohei Ohtani 2018 Topps Now Moment of The Week #MOW1 (/17,750) -- Rookie Card
The Reason Bought: This card is pretty plentiful for a Topps Now card and is from Ohtani's rookie year, though it doesn't have an RC logo. (Perhaps since it's a shared card?) It pairs him with an MLB legend he's getting compared to quite a bit due to his both-ways play these days, but I think I grabbed this one (quite awhile back actually but I only recently got this one in hand) for about $19 because I liked how Ruth looked with his Boston colors. Interestingly, they aren't on a lot of shared cards for them despite all that history.
The Grade: BGS 9.5

Reality Check: This one checks in at the most-common grade for this card but there are worse copies out there -- well, at least a few. This is a heavily graded card vs. a lot of stuff, but there not a ton better than this mark, though there are even two BGS Black slabs. I didn't check the pop report before buying it -- just thought the price wasn't bad for a 9.5.

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NOT ON THE TRADING BLOCK
The Card: Kris Bryant 2014 Topps Heritage Minor League #30A
The Reason Bought: Where will he be playing the rest of his career? Well, the first part of that started at the trade deadline on Friday as he's now a member of the San Francisco Giants. The Cubs gutted their roster of nearly all of their World Series winners, trading Bryant, Anthony Rizzo and Javier Baez within a 24-hour span and the Nats moved former Cub Kyle Schwarber, too, to add another reminder of the changes in Chicago. That's business and Bryant has been good business on cardboard since his prospect and Rookie Cards dropped years ago. This one is from a favorite brand of mine that I think is overlooked -- Heritage MiLB cards -- and this one shows him in a uni most probably don't know.
The Grade: BGS 9

Reality Check: I didn't overpay for a 9.5 here -- look at that divide -- since most check in there and there's (perhaps oddly) nothing higher. I already had his Heritage RC in a slab from the year after this, so I added this to go with it. Do I like him on the Giants? Not really, but at least the team is relatively popular. Where he ends up next year will be key for his cardboard over the long term.

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A CLASSIC IF YOU ASK ME
The Comic: Detective Comics #575 (June 1987)
The Reason Bought: This book was a popular one back when I was collecting them on a more regular and rabid basis -- $1 a pop made them easy to grab -- the kick-off of a short but memorable series that included some star power among the artists and some simple but striking covers for the time. Back then (a few years after this was published) I collected this artist and then he handed off the rest of the four-book stint to Todd McFarlane. Since I'm aiming to work in a graded book here every month just to mix things up, I grabbed this one on the cheaper side of things to see how it looked in a slab.
The Grade: CGC 9.2 (Universal)

Reality Check: There are a number of small tweaks along the spine of this one -- they likely would have come out had the book been pressed -- but otherwise it looks pretty clean to me. I actually sent my own copy of this one in for grading recently -- that one will be pressed -- and we'll see how it compares. Do I need two slabbed? Probably not, but my slabbed books stash is pretty small right now.

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BREAK ON THRU ... TO THE OTHER SLAB
The Card: Jim Morrison 2020 Topps Heritage News Flashbacks #NF-9
The Reason Graded: Right now, CSG doesn't grade non-sports cards and its in-house counterpart that might so them is still focused purely on gaming. However, since this card came from a baseball set it made the cut and I sent it in. Why? I have a small but always-growing stash of music-related slabs -- that and Morrison doesn't really have a boatload of official major-manufacturer trading cards. 
The Grade: CSG 9

Reality Check: This checked in lower than I had hoped for -- but not too low -- likely due to the vertical centering that I perhaps wasn't as obsessed about here vs. edges and corners. This was the cleaner of my two copies in that regard from a Heritage set that's loaded with cards that would be tough grades with the oldschool stock and those black edges that can showcase any flaw quite remarkably.

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I FORCED THE ISSUE
The Card: Michael Jordan 1989-90 Fleer #21
The Reason Graded: This was the first Fleer NBA set I ever ripped into as a slightly more serious full-time collector -- I did a bunch of the cards from the year before but they didn't get saved ... they weren't baseball cards. This card is an iconic one to me from the year of perhaps the last good Fleer set and the debut season for NBA Hoops that was way more findable where I lived and got all my attention. I sent this one in since it was my only copy figuring it would check in around an eight but it's clear I missed something ... and it may have been obvious. 
The Grade: CSG 7.5

Reality Check: I think I missed a surface issue here (stuff you can't even see in the pic ... only under light at a different angle) that knocked it down beyond the centering and yellow-ink registration. I sort of wish I had opted for sub-grades here  to know more precisely what brought it down but it's OK ... my MJ slab stash is more of the baseball variety than his NBA stuff.

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OLYMPIAN APPEAL
The Card: Chloe Kim 2018 Topps U.S. Winter Olympics Silver parallel #US-36
The Reason Graded: With the Olympics (albeit the Summer Games) on the radar this year, I figured I'd grade something simple from a recent Topps set to add to a few other Olympian slabs that I have. Simone Biles' stuff hadn't blown up at the point when I was picking cards, so I chose a Silver parallel of one of two cards Kim has in this set. Unfortunately the Silver parallel attribute fell off the data entry for CSG's system and nobody caught it. (This has actually happened a few times for me but I let it go -- but it's something for them and for you to watch for -- as it ultimately didn't affect the grade and, well, I'm not slabbing to sell.  
The Grade: CSG 9.5

Reality Check: This one checked in where I had hoped -- a high grade on a simple card to add appeal to something basic but interesting -- and they don't cough up 10s easily at all so a 9.5 is a solid grade, especially on a paper-stock card.

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TOUGH ONE TO GRADE
The Card: Hank Aaron 1991 Upper Deck Hologram #HH1
The Reason Bought: I had kind of forgotten about this chase card until I recently pulled one of these in a single pack of 1991 UD in a multi-pack junk wax lot. That pack-fresh copy was seriously scratched up -- enough I wouldn't consider it gradeable -- and that got me wondering what the market for slabs of this one looked like out there. They aren't super-pricey but they're also not super-plentiful in top grades, either.
The Grade: PSA 7

Reality Check: That pop report is an interesting one -- just two in top grade -- and most of them checking in at a mark that's not impressive to most people. My grade is also among the more-plentiful ones to find -- and it still looks pretty good for a seven. I didn't over-pay so it's not a big deal -- and I still wonder what a top-graded copy of this might look like, particularly via BGS.

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A BARGAIN ON SENIOR
The Card: Vladimir Guerrero 1997 Bowman's Best Best Cuts Refractors #BC18
The Reason Bought: I found this in an off-the-radar place for only $10 and it seemed like a steal since these Refractors are laser cut -- and that can make them susceptible to odd damage. With Junior's big season, it makes me wonder whether people might be looking to collect cards of Senior a little more. Perhaps not, but this is from his third year on cardboard.
The Grade: PSA 9

Reality Check: I checked eBay prices and not pop reports on this one before I grabbed it but both look pretty interesting. (eBay asking prices were a lot higher than what I paid and some sales were modestly higher.) I thought this one having so few copies slabbed was odd and the ratio of 10s here is stiff but perhaps more appropriate than a lot of cards you'll see from the recent past. That said, would I have paid a lot more for this? Probably not, but that doesn't mean I don't like this buy.

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ALWAYS LIKED THIS ERROR
The Card: Bob Welch 1989 Topps #605 (error card)
The Reason Bought: I always liked this error card -- and it's one I never saw often back then unlike so many others. The mistake is that the black bar on the back is where a stats header should have been. Normally cards have a line there that says "Complete major league pitching record (league leader in italics, tie ♦)" and for some reason that got dropped off on his card. This is also perhaps one of only a handful of Welch cards that might have added appeal beyond player collectors.
The Grade: PSA 9

Reality Check: The price seemed right here -- nothing major -- and it's a pretty clean nine with really just the centering the obvious issue. This is the most-common grade but that seems right as I think 10s would be hard with the printing and packaging of that era (and I highly doubt you'll find errors in factory sets ... in fact I'd basically guarantee you won't). Those thoughts are why I'd just lean toward grabbing a card already graded rather than try to chase them from wax ... you can't count on finding error wax easily, either.

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DOUBLY AFFORDABLE
The Card: Rich Allen & Johnny Bench 1975 Topps Mini #210 (MVPs subset)
The Reason Bought: This comes from a small run of Mini slabs I found that were priced to move -- and this one moved to me at less than $4. The centering here is rough, that's for sure, but the rest is very clean with no print spots and clean corners and surface is still pretty nice. For $4 I like this card.
The Grade: PSA 8 (OC)

Reality Check: Since mine has a qualifier it's not among the 199 noted here. (Only four copies were graded with qualifiers on this one.) It looks like a card that generally grades pretty well but that number of 10s is impressive. But like I said, for $4 I like this card.

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ONLY SOME WERE SLABBED
The Card: Shaun Alexander 2000 Playoff Momentum Graded Series #110 (175 slabbed out of 750 made) -- Rookie Card
The Reason Bought: This was a cheaper grab (under $10) for a graded RC of a guy with school ties for me and for a guy who was the big star when I was there. I wasn't able to grab much of his good stuff when he arrived on cardboard back then (I was still in school) but I'll grab some cheap stuff when it presents itself.
The Grade: BGS 8.5

Reality Check: It's not a high grade, but it's the most-common grade here and not that many have topped it. What's the deal here? Of the 750 serial-numbered copies of this card that were made, 175 of them were graded by BGS and put into boxes as box-toppers. (That means 15 raw copies were slabbed after that to get the number seen here.) It's surprising so few have graded well but that's likely due to the foilboard stock used here.

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HIS TIME IS NOW ... RIGHT?
The Card: CM Punk 2012 Topps WWE World Class Events #7 (2011 TLC pay-per-view poster)
The Reason Graded: I'm not that big on Punk and I missed on his pricey Rookie Card when I jettisoned all my Pacific TNA Impact cards years ago -- names I knew then (it wasn't many) made the cut, he didn't. But this card? It reprints a classic PPV poster that notes his series of promos complaining about the WWE not pushing him and his merch -- he wanted ice cream bars, dammit! -- and it's a classic. Now, why is it here beyond that? Well, this just might be the month he finally returns to a pro wrestling ring on TV for the first time since 2014 ... for WWE's new big rival, AEW. He will be a big deal when that happens because there's a lot of history here ... both in storyline, legally and more. (Punk's early cards, rare stuff and autos will perhaps be movers ... this one will simply just be a classic.) 
The Grade: CSG 9

Reality Check: I did a cheap (back then) retail rack case of this release and only landed a handful of copies for this card -- and all that dark ink on thin paper stock means this card is not an easy grade. I picked my best copy and sent it in along with one of his cards showing the "pipebomb" promo that elevated him into legendary status (that card here last month) and put it in my first bulk lot. I'm betting there aren't many copies graded by any company and I'll bet this one checks in as the lone copy when the CSG pop report arrives ... they say it's coming soon.* Kind of like Punk ... I bet he shows first.

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